The debate on social media is hot, and anonymous coaches are coming out of the woodwork to speak to the media about just how ghastly Michigan football’s alleged sign-stealing scandal is and how much it helps the Wolverines win.
But there are counter-voices out there.
On Monday, NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah was asked by Rich Eisen on “The Rich Eisen Show” what talk there is in the NFL about the alleged scandal, and Jeremiah said NFL people don’t really.
“Two different conversations, OK? As you would I’m sure not be surprised, nobody in the NFL cares,” Jeremiah said. “I’ve worked with teams and so it’s a different thing. You’re allowed to go scout opponents in the NFL, right? You try to get everything you can — obviously they have the headset communication, which to me is the takeaway from this whole thing. What are we doing? Let’s put the headsets in and let’s be done with this whole thing. And then you would listen to TV copy to see if I can hear the audible from the quarterback and what can we get from that? Like that’s kind of always been a part of the NFL game.
“So they don’t — look, it’s not … it’s against the rules; 100% shouldn’t have done it but the NFL community just kind of shrugged their shoulders whereas the college community is — I mean, this is it’s unnecessary. More than anything else, it’s excessive and it’s unnecessary.”
Jeremiah went a step further, noting that it’s not just that the NFL doesn’t care (he adds he doesn’t either) but that sign stealing isn’t why Michigan was beating teams. It’s because the team is full of NFL players who are just flat-out better than those they’ve lined up against.
“I’m not pandering here, obviously. I just — I’ve watched them play and I watched them physically beat the snot out of everybody up front,” Jeremiah said. “And I just don’t think that there’s some piece of information that’s the reason why Aidan Hutchinson just put the Ohio State tackle on his backside. Like I don’t see the connection there.
“There’s people that are obsessed with it, Rich — like every article, every new piece of information. Sounds bad (but) I don’t care. They have a bunch of NFL players. They’re big, they’re strong, they’re physical and they beat people up. and this was just a dumb thing they got caught up in, is my opinion.”